Okumbi : Door still open for Gor Mahia players
Harambee Stars coach Stanley Okumbi, has sought to deny rumours that Gor Mahia players would be excluded from the 2018 CHAN squad following the decision of the club to prevent their players from playing in next week’s friendly against Malawi. Five Kogalo players: Boniface Oluoch, Musa Mohammed, Harun Shakava, Ernest Wendo and Kenneth Muguna were called up by Okumbi but the club declined to release them thus prompting reports that FKF Chairman Nick Mwendwa had vowed to exclude the club’s players from CHAN.
However Okumbi says Kogalo players are still part of his plans.
“We would have liked to have the (Gor Mahia) players for the Malawi match. Unfortunately the club is not obliged to release players to us outside of the Fifa window. Having said that, football is a team sport and it is our belief that the 11 or so who will be selected to do duty for Kenya come Tuesday will do the country proud.” said Okumbi.
Gor Mahia tactician Ze Maria for his part, wants to keep focus on the trophy. And he recognizes that winning the league will be a tall order.
“It is tough; we have seen how Bandari, AFC Leopards and Ulinzi have started the season. It is not going to be easy but our ambition remains the same, to win the trophy,”said Ze Maria to supersport.
Ze Maria also noted that he is under tremendous pressure from fans who demand consistent results.
“It was important because in this club if you lose two matches in a row, there is so much pressure and confidence is affected. It was very good for us to get that win in a very tough match,” he added.
To keep the club on track, Ze Maria is confident that he call call up on a deep base of players with far more options than in 2016.
“This year we have a very good squad with quality. There is so much competition in the squad and everyone wants to play. This is a good problem for me. In this season, this will be something important for us,” the Brazilian tactician noted.
“Like against Homeboyz Meddie came off the bench to score, maybe another time another player will come off the bench and do something special. It is something good,” he concluded.
Senseless threats from FKF that negatively affect quality of Kenyan’s top flight soccer. Players are called to the national team based on merit. Don’t disrupt GMFC’s plans with unsanctioned/ needless friendlies. Look at where baseless chest thumping by Nick has landed KPL soccer,SPONSORLESS. FKF has paid only kes.5m of the kes.24m that it was to remit to KPL by 1st April to cater for the expanded league.He who pays the piper calls the tune, FKF has backtracked on disciplinary measures against Mugabe, Munro, Oguda and plead with SS to rescind its decision to pull out. That said, why can’t bloated EC reach out to these visiting teams for joint training cum friendlies.I recall that used to be the case in years gone by especially against visiting clubs when EC officials were concerned more about club development rather than fighting over stewards and gate collections. Btw is Bolo releasing the figures for H/boyz game or has she and Nyangi “buried the hatchet” so to say.
1.Mr FKF President please spare us your incessant wrangling character and sideshow. WE are more interested in winning all trophies and not engaging in friendlies that don’t add value to us internationally and puts our players at risk of picking unnecessary injuries
2.Ze Maria change your mind about Meddie being a perrenial substitute because he is the best striker you have in GM at the moment better even than the untouchable one you always field for 90 mins
3.Excluding Kogalo players from Chan will be the silliest mistake since they are individually the creme de la creme that kenya has to offer locally
4.Wangoremawahero
I am bored.
How does a fan watch KPL matches apart from visiting the stadia? Are the footballing stakeholders in this country serious? How do we convince our young that Gor Mahia exists yet the media feeds them on a diet of Chelsea and Barcelona?
Breaking silence, all sport is about first entertainment, second and more importantly marketing. FKF please without sponsorship and live broadcast, just call off the whole thing, it is an unnecessary charade, more like talking to oneself. To Okumbi, something inside seems to tell you that you can exclude GM from your future plans, very unfortunate, look at the team you took to Hull, useless
Gor should be able to sign separate broadcast deals;why be dumped in same basket with fanless clubs like Tusker
Nice to see Innocent and Ndirangu back in the mix.Sony expect 3 goals.